Harris Wharf London Shirt Jacket Patterned Moleskin

Moleskin usually means a heavy cotton with a short napped face, brushed until it is soft and slightly dry to the touch, and the name describes a feel rather than a fiber. This one is mostly wool, with cotton behind it and a small amount of polyamide and elastane doing the recovery, and it is woven as a herringbone rather than printed as one. The blend is the reason the garment works as a shirt jacket instead of as either a shirt or a jacket. Wool alone at this weight would want to be tailored. Cotton alone would want to be washed and would crease where it bends. The four together give a cloth with enough body to stand as outerwear and enough give to be worn like a shirt, buttoned or open, over a knit or under a coat.

Why we selected it

The shirt jacket is the most useful garment most people own and the most commonly made badly, usually by making it too stiff. This one bends.

Materials and construction

Forty-seven percent virgin wool, forty-two percent cotton, ten percent polyamide, and one percent elastane, made in Italy. Woven as a herringbone. Color: Dark Blue Herringbone.

We do not describe the pocket arrangement, the cuff, or the collar on this piece.

Fit notes

A shirt jacket lives or dies on whether it fits over a knit, and the small elastane content here means it moves rather than pulling across the back when it does. Expect it to sit like a heavy overshirt rather than a jacket, which is to say it wants a layer under it.

Styling

Over a crew knit, under a coat, with a flat wool trouser. Dark blue herringbone behaves like a solid from three feet away and rewards a closer look, so it will not fight a patterned trouser but it is better against a plain one.

Care

Dry clean, and keep it away from heat: one percent elastane is enough to be permanently damaged by a hot wash or a hot dryer, and it will not recover. Our general guidance on garments made from more than one material covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Men 2b. Blazer is cut in a cloth of the same four-fiber composition, patterned as a salt and pepper houndstooth rather than a herringbone. The Men Coach Jacket is outerwear in a black seersucker, and the Men Pleated Trousers are virgin wool woven in Japan and made in Italy. There is more on the house on the Harris Wharf London designer page. Everything we carry from Harris Wharf London is listed together.